By Godson Umejiego, Correspondent USA

Jaylen Brown, Zach LaVine, Donovan Mitchell and Jayson Tatum in Field, Composed Entirely of 2021 NBA All-Stars; MTN DEW® Zone Returns: Two Deep Shots Located 6 Feet Behind 3-Point Line Worth Three Points Each; Competition to Take Place on Sunday, March 7 Before 2021 NBA All-Star Game.

Former 3-Point Contest champions Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns and Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors lead a field composed entirely of current NBA All-Stars who will participate in the 2021 MTN DEW® 3-Point Contest on Sunday, March 7 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. The competition will take place before the 2021 NBA All-Star Game, airing on TNT.

The six-player field for the 35th MTN DEW® 3-Point Contest also features 2021 NBA All-Stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics, Zach LaVine of the Chicago Bulls and Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz. This marks the first 3-Point Contest in which each participant is a current NBA All-Star.

MTN DEW returns as the title partner of the 3-Point Contest as part of PepsiCo and the NBA’s multiyear marketing partnership renewal. In addition, MTN DEW will award US$100,000 in newly created MTN DEW Scholarships to two students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities during the 3-Point Contest broadcast.

The MTN DEW 3-Point Contest is a two-round, timed shooting competition at NBA All-Star 2021, which will take place on one night. TNT’s NBA All-Star coverage on March 7 will begin at 5 p.m. ET with TNT NBA Tip-Off presented by CarMax, followed by the Taco Bell® Skills Challenge and MTN DEW 3-Point Contest starting at 6:30 p.m. ET. NBA All-Star Game coverage will begin at 8 p.m. ET, with AT&T Slam Dunk taking place at halftime. NBA All-Star 2021 will reach fans in 215 countries and territories in more than 50 languages.

Booker, the 2018 MTN DEW 3-Point Contest champion, will make his fifth appearance in the event. Curry, the 2015 champion, will compete for the seventh time, tying Dale Ellis for the second-most appearances behind Craig Hodges (eight). A seven-time NBA All-Star, Curry has made a league-high 164 3-pointers this season. He holds the NBA single-season record for 3-pointers made (402 in 2015-16) and ranks second in career 3-pointers made (2,659).

LaVine and Mitchell are both former AT&T Slam Dunk champions. No player has ever won both the MTN DEW 3-Point Contest and AT&T Slam Dunk in a career. LaVine will compete in the 3-Point Contest for the second year in a row. This marks the event debut for Mitchell. Brown and Tatum are also first-time participants in the MTN DEW 3-Point Contest.

For the second consecutive year, the MTN DEW 3-Point Contest will feature the “MTN DEW Zone” – two deep shot locations positioned equidistant between the traditional racks at the top of the 3-point arc and the adjacent “wing” rack. Each of the two ball pedestals in the MTN DEW Zone is located 6 feet behind the 3-point line and holds one special green ball, the “3-Ball.” Shots made with the green ball are worth three points.

In addition to the two shots in the MTN DEW Zone, the MTN DEW 3-Point Contest will have five main shooting locations – four racks containing four official NBA game balls (each worth one point) and one multicolored “money” ball (worth two points), as well as one special “all money ball” rack. Every ball on the all money ball rack, which each participant can place at any of the five traditional shooting locations, is worth two points.

Each competitor will have 70 seconds (1:10) to shoot as many as the 27 balls as he can, with a maximum possible score of 40 points in a round. The three competitors with the highest scores in the first round will advance to the championship round. The player with the highest score in the championship round will win the MTN DEW 3-Point Contest. Click here (https://on.nba.com/3cbMvsn) for a complete explanation of the rules and a diagram showing the location of the MTN DEW Zone.